The FINANCIAL — Being a good corporate citizen – this is how AmCham Georgia defines CSR. The majority of Georgian companies try to be good corporate citizens. However there is still much room for improvement. AmCham Georgia has outlined three strategies that it aims to follow in line with CSR in the nearest future.
The AmCham Corporate Social Responsibility Committee was officially launched in February 2012. The CSR Committee provides insight into how CSR programs can be implemented, such as how to effectively monitor and track such efforts and gauge whether they contribute in a meaningful way to awareness and creating a positive impact. Paul Clark and Rusudan Kbilashvili, AmCham Georgia CSR Committee Chairs, provided their viewpoints regarding the responsibilities of corporations in Georgia.
There are many Georgian companies that are good corporate citizens, said Kbilashvili, adding that some of them do not realize the exact meaning of CSR. “AmCham’s CSR Committee has been trying through the years to raise awareness of what CSR means. We invite international experts and arrange presentations in order to share international experience. CSR is a new term not only in Georgia, but abroad too. So we carry the responsibility to enhance awareness of it and give out some recommendations. The promotion of CSR activities was started by international organizations and NGOs in Georgia.”
“Today we are finding that more companies are involved in CSR promotion in Georgia and this is a really positive step. The rising awareness of CSR makes us optimistic that we will see further development of this campaign in the future. The fact that The FINANCIAL devotes a special edition to CSR in itself means that we have achieved a certain goal. There is a perception that companies should not talk much about their CSR activities. However, we know that CSR is not only charity. So, promoting CSR activities by companies will raise competitiveness between companies to become better corporate citizens. The promotion of CSR activities by companies is important at this stage when the level of awareness is low. Considering the big competition on the market it is important for companies to attach additional value to their products. It is a very sustainable and long-term vision of a company – to be a good corporate citizen,” said Kbilashvili.
CSR is a very abstract term, said Clark. In his words, even people in the West do not know what it means in concrete terms. Accordingly, after starting work together with AmCham, the very first thing the CSR Committee Co-Chairs did was to establish for themselves how to define CSR.
“CSR is nothing more and nothing less than being a good corporate citizen. If we think about physical citizens, we will see that all of us try to be good physical citizens. We all do some things well, some things poorly. All of us have an opportunity to improve being a good physical citizen. Most people want to improve, not everyone. The same thing applies to corporate citizens. Every business is a corporate citizen. Most businesses are good corporate citizens in the sense that -just as physical citizens – they try to do the right thing. However, perhaps on the corporate citizenship’s side there are more opportunities for improvement. The similarity between physical and corporate citizenship is striking. For instance, as a physical citizen you should not litter, not throw rubbish in the street, while as a good corporate citizen, you should not pollute. As a physical citizen, if you see someone who needs help, you help. As a corporate citizen you do the same thing. An important message is that CSR is merely being a good corporate citizen. Everyone, every company is a good corporate citizen more or less,” Clark told.
According to Clark, most Georgian companies are doing lots of things that would qualify them as good corporate citizens. “At the same time there are lots of opportunities to improve corporate citizenship. In many areas, Georgian businesses, like other businesses, have lots of improvements they can make. Some of them would do it because it is the right thing to do. We see our task as letting members of AmCham recognize a good thing that they are doing today as well as to identify opportunities for improvement to become better citizens in the future. Some of the companies are quiet citizens. They are not talking much about it but they are really doing a lot of good things.”
In Georgia companies mostly limit their responsibilities to within the frames of charity. As Clark said, charity is only one part of being a good corporate citizen, just as for a physical citizen. “An emphasis on charity is not enough.”
“Different people and different companies make different choices about what part of being a good citizen that they wish to emphasize. For example, one company might greatly emphasize supporting employees beyond what is really needed while another might emphasizes charity to others,” said Clark.
“Physical citizens choose to do more here and less there every day; it is a balancing act. As a rule, none of us should criticize people for the specific choices they make (e.g., not enough for charity) unless we also look all other areas where they are being good physical citizens (e.g., lots of volunteerism). Companies are no different they make choices as well. It is not up to us or up to anyone else to criticize companies about their choices so long as, overall, they can be considered to be a good corporate citizen on balance. Having said that, we can and should criticize companies when they do terrible things in specific areas,” said Clark.
In Kbilashvili’s words, Georgian companies are involved in many more activities that are in line with CSR than just charity. However, when it comes to promotion, she said charity is what they choose to promote. “There are even lots of Public Private Partnership projects in Georgia. However, not many people have heard about them,” she added.
“The majority of Georgian companies are well enough presented in the internal as well as external directions of CSR. Companies provide insurance packages for employees. They motivate their workers as they realize that company team members create the business success stories. The majority of successful companies are well aware of the international standards of HR behaviour. Last week a competition was held for the best HR projects in Georgia. 12 companies participated in it. Such a case makes it clear that we are moving forwards,” said Kbilashvili.
“Being a good corporate citizen is the right thing to do. Just like being a good physical citizen. One chooses to be good not because one must be but because one wants to be. Companies as well have to want to be good corporate citizens,” said Clark.
“It is terrible if a company does CSR activities because it must. Companies need to want to do it,” Clark said.
“The U.S. is often criticized for its court system which makes it easy to sue companies for doing the wrong thing. But on the other hand, one of its benefits is that companies generally do the right thing since it is more expensive for them to not do the right thing,” he added.
“There are three strategies that AmCham and the CSR Committee at AmCham are going to follow. The first strategy is for AmCham to be a platform for members to tell others what they are doing, how they are being good corporate citizens. The second strategy is to put together the tools members can use to improve their corporate citizenship. The third is that AmCham itself, which is a very good corporate citizen already, can always do better. As a result AmCham itself will become a better corporate citizen,” Clark told The FINANCIAL.
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